I know you won’t judge me

This Arts Advocacy Day, the stakes are much higher. As we work to make the case for the arts, we wonder, is our data keeping pace? We're using love (or breakup) letters as a creative and fun design research method to get powerful insight into the perceptions of our stakeholders. We invite you to join us in this discovery.

Rev. Erik Martinez Resly is an artist, community organizer, and ordained Unitarian Universalist minister living in Washington, DC. Erik is the founder of The Sanctuaries, one of the first interfaith arts communities in the country. The Sanctuaries community partners with arts and cultural spaces throughout the city, including Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. This letter is from the team at Woolly:

Dearest Sanctuaries,

I deeply appreciate the love, compassion, and care with which you treat me. It both reminds and inspires me to treat others the same way! I love hanging out with you and riffing about our shared values around social justice, equity, inclusion, access, activism and of course, ART!!

Even when I misstep, or take a crazy risk, I know you won’t judge me, and that allows for a kind of freedom I don’t always experience. You reassure me that we are all in process – and that process is just as important as product.

But speaking of product, our artistic collaborations have been really special to me. You bring skills and talents to the room that I don’t have, and together I think we create experiences that speak to the heart in different, yet fully complementary ways. See, I think we both allow ourselves to be gloriously human, which I will define in part as being imperfect and quirky and challenging. We both long for purpose-driven galvanizing spiritual experiences. We both believe in being in service to, and connecting with others.

So, in conclusion, I am so grateful to have you as a part of my community, and to be a part of yours.